repellent for sharks, soup and Opinel, from Annecy he sells survival kits that are cardboard
A true return to nature in autonomy, survivalism has been booming since the first confinement. In Annecy in Haute-Savoie, a company has specialized for 20 years in the distance sale of survival equipment. And today it is crumbling under orders.
What is the relationship between a recipe in a “Shoulder of lamb with mild spices” sachet, a fire starter to rub, a repellent for sharks, or quite simply an Opinel? All these objects can find their place in a “survivalist” backpack.
We could have thought it was a fashion, born from “Rambo” films or “Kho-lanta” style reality TV shows. But with the Covid pandemic, survivalism now goes well beyond the circle of fans of “close combat” with the elements of a raging nature, or of para-military training more or less linked to the political movement. extreme right-wing extremist.
Marc Sayag, a former soldier, created 20 years ago in Sévrier in Haute-Savoie his site for the sale of survival equipment. And he is far from complaining. ” People got scared with the Covid. Afraid of everything. The Covid in the air… in the water. It’s not for nothing that we sold a lot of filters », He explains.
Orders from 5 to 5,000 euros
No problem for the founder of Inuka.com anyway. Its sales resulted in 15-20% during the period of the pandemic. With more than 9000 references, any candidate for survival can find what they are looking for on their site. ” The amount of orders that I am placed range from 5 to 5,000 euros. And do not believe that that of 5000 are rare! », He admits.
Proof if it were necessary that the “survival effect” to the pandemic had its effect to untie the purses, in France as in Overseas where Marc also sells.
NATO approved shark repellent
” A survival blanket, a survival number sleeping bag and an Opinel 6, that the soldiers use a lot in Guyana. And then there’s shark repellent, NATO approved », Specifies the seller, quite proud of his« Best of », a« complete »survival kit at 169 euros!
Arguments that help to ride the top of the wave of “survivalism”. Because on the web, sites abound: other alpine sites such as “The survival shop”, based in Chambéry; “Survive.com” or even “survirun”, for survivalists who want to run towards the end of the world, perhaps?
Legal video around the “stages of survival”
An end of the world, which has sometimes already arrived for some practitioners of the many stages of survival now organized all over France. Since the first French exhibition of “survivalism” in 2017, we have not counted the number of sites that offer internships. On a day or a weekend. For around thirty euros or several hundred. “Many companies call on us to stimulate the spirit of mutual aid among their employees. This request can represent up to half of the turnover of some training sites.“, then explained, in the Journal du Dimanche, one of the main French players in the sector present at the show.
Four years later and a pandemic, there is still a growing craze. And a flip side of the coin that sometimes reveals his face in the twist of a drama. Like the one that occurred a little over a year ago, during an internship organized in Morbihan in Brittany. A 26-year-old young man from the Paris region died after ingesting a particularly toxic plant.
“This drama is the reflection of the unsuitability of our society to an emerging phenomenon for which it is not prepared “, wrote the family of the victim in an open letter published by his relatives, one year after the tragedy. “Rediscovering nature and its rules cannot be done without thinking. We have discovered with dismay the extent of the legal vacuum that surrounds these stages of survival.“.
No training, no label is, in fact, required for the organizers of survival courses. Placed under judicial control, the trainer present at the course was not trained to judge the dangerousness of the “saffron” plant that the young man ate … perhaps even on his advice! For the investigation to judge.
A petition of 26,000 signatures for “the framing of survivalism”
Regardless of its advancement, a petition is circulating in the west of France. It collected 26,000 signatures and was handed over to the Prime Minister’s services last August. For her part, the Secretary of State, responsible for youth, Sarah El Haïry, recognizes the need to structure survivalism. “A group of eight deputies submitted a bill on “ supervision of survivalism and the fight against abuses and associated threats “”, She said in a statement.
A mobilization that begins to “move the lines” on the side of the organizers. Thus, the Syndicate of Survivology Organizations (aptly named SOS), and which represents survival training instructors, has just proposed the creation of a civil protection-type patent, as an extension of the first aid certificate. As for the national union of monitors “Nature and survival”, it campaigns to recognize the “achievements of the military”.
In short, the climate of the end of the world encouraged by the pandemic may well encourage the practice of survivalism. The purchase of “ad hoc” equipment is far from sufficient for a preparation up to this ultimate event.
video length: 03:33
Survivalism